an odd book that reassured me that families are families, and those binds are strong no matter how warped and twisted.

an odd book with a cover that looks sweeter than it's contents.

here's kenny... she lives with her aunt glo--who isn't an aunt, just the last "respectable" person in her life--and all of her family. she's there because her dad is sent to prison for drugs, and it's actully a pretty good set up because when aunt glo isn't oxytocin'ed out, she is kind and loving and is forgiving about the fact that kenny is doing whatever she can to look less like the girl she is and more like a boy, a boy that no body will take notice of. i never for a second think she wants to be a boy and all of that. i think she wants to be no where-- lost in the sweet in-between of needing a family, but fearing the knowledge that she's not really a member of the family, and when she turns eighteen, no one will want her.

i think we all do this thing where we want to just sink into the background and not make a fuss. we want to be meshed into something comfortable and safe; and fear if we come from the shadows, we will be set free from what we love. maybe that comes from betrayals, lack of trust and faith in people... i don't know, and maybe this is just how i feel sometimes.

in the end, you want to pick kenny up, brush off the "dirt" of her life, give her a push and send her out the real life that is waiting for her. you want better for her, and yet know what she has is all she really needs.

Entertainment Weekly said, "[A] sweet coming-of-age story, thanks to its young, wise-beyond-her-years, Scout Finch-esque heroine." I'm not sure i agree with that, because i don't see scout as fragile as kenny... read it and you tell me what you think about that!

as for Sheri Reynolds, the author, i read the The Rapture of Canaan way back when Oprah was reading it. the characters seem similar, and i remember that i felt the same way... sad, but hopeful.